Sarvary Mark A, Asgari Mitra, Castelli Frank R, Ruesch Joseph M
Investigative Biology Teaching Laboratories, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2025 Aug 21;26(2):e0004925. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00049-25. Epub 2025 May 12.
Practitioners of the mentor mindset in academic settings maintain high standards while providing strong support in and outside the classroom. They encourage the growth mindset by being motivating and transparent, reducing stress, and providing feedback that can help intellectual growth. The mentor mindset is the foundation of the professional development program for undergraduate and graduate student teaching assistants in the largest introductory biology course at Cornell University (Investigative Biology). The professional development program helps these teaching assistants gain pedagogical skills that they can immediately apply in the inquiry-based laboratory course. They provide feedback to each other and help with course improvement. Due to this professional development program, they are equipped with pedagogical and mentoring skills that allow them to do more than just teach the course material. The collaboration among the different groups (undergraduate teaching assistants, graduate teaching assistants, course instructors, and students) mutually benefits everyone. While each group has different reasons for being part of this learning community, they support each other in reaching their goals with the shared mission of developing a high-quality and supportive learning environment. Professional development for undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants must keep their incentives, motivations, and goals in mind and help them collaborate. This article discusses the development of this program over the past two decades and shares the resources to help instructors build similar programs using the mentor mindset.
在学术环境中秉持导师思维模式的从业者在课堂内外都保持高标准，同时给予大力支持。他们通过激发动力、保持透明、减轻压力以及提供有助于智力成长的反馈来鼓励成长型思维。导师思维模式是康奈尔大学最大的基础生物学课程（探究生物学）中本科和研究生助教专业发展项目的基础。该专业发展项目帮助这些助教获得可立即应用于探究式实验课程的教学技能。他们相互提供反馈并协助课程改进。由于这个专业发展项目，他们具备了教学和指导技能，使他们不仅能够教授课程内容。不同群体（本科助教、研究生助教、课程教师和学生）之间的合作使每个人都受益。虽然每个群体参与这个学习社区都有不同的原因，但他们以共同的使命——营造高质量且具支持性的学习环境——相互支持以实现各自目标。本科和研究生助教的专业发展必须考虑到他们的动机、动力和目标，并帮助他们开展合作。本文讨论了该项目在过去二十年中的发展情况，并分享了资源，以帮助教师运用导师思维模式建立类似项目。
